Oh Romeo
by NoPerfectCircle
Summary: Edward&Bella. AU. One shot. "If you're gone, then Romeo killed Juliet and that's wrong. I hope you know."


**Disclaimer:** All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.  
**Author's note:** Largely inspired by the amazing song, Oh Romeo by Tara Louise. Just listen to it while reading, ok? Also, the time is not set in any particular era. It's definitely not the 20th century, but I'm no expert in female/male conventions for the centuries before, so let's keep the time undefined. And it takes place in England.

Reviews would be great! :)

**OH ROMEO**

Love is just a word. It symbolizes and communicates a meaning. Sometimes, it's deprived of meaning. It's deprived of value.

Sometimes, it's an empty word.

Sometimes, people force the meaning out of it.

She is a beautiful girl of eighteen. Chocolate hair, waving to the middle of her back. Warm, brown eyes. Full red lips.

He is a handsome boy of nineteen. Green eyes piercing your soul. Messy auburn hair. Pale flawless skin.

This is the story of their lives.  
This is the story of their love.

It's the story of a teardrop.

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She fidgets with her dress, a nice dress with flower patterns. She thinks it's too catchy, but her mother wants her to be nice. 'Be a lady for tonight', she asked.

It shouldn't be too much to ask, except Bella Swan never went along with conventions. Oh don't think much of it, she has manners, she is well educated and she is a very sensitive girl, but she hates parties and she hates being the centre of the attention.

Tonight, her two nightmares are becoming true. Three, if you think of that unspoken word she avoided for eighteen years. Marriage.

As if love wasn't already so complicated.

As if a marriage didn't require love.

As if you could find love like you choose your vegetables at the market.

But that's what her mother wants her to do tonight. Choose the best vegetable out of a box of good ones.

Perfectly educated, perfectly prodigal. Perfectly rich, according to her own mother's wish.

Perfectly _dull_ in her own words.

No, Bella Swan doesn't want a husband and Bella Swan certainly doesn't need love. She prefers to read tragic love stories. Romeo and Juliet. Heatcliff and Catherine. She prefers to imagine what love feels like rather than living it.

"If you crumple your dress before we are there, I will make you wear heels for a week," her mother says, no, warns.

Bella pouts. "You are no fun."

Those lips of hers have turned a lot of men crazy.

"And you're impossible," her mom retorts.

And she has nothing witty to answer to this.

True love is impossible.

She likes impossible.

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'Who cares about white fences and babies?' he wonders as he paces among the crowd.

The idea of getting married never settled in him. How could it?

He knows his father is only pushing him because he has only so much time to have an heir.

Make a name. Find a wife. Have a son. Die. The natural path of a man's life.

He knows who he's supposed to meet. He knows who and why he's been brought here.

He is rich. She is well educated. He is the most handsome man of the city. She is said to be the most gorgeous girl. That's all there is to it. They haven't met, yet everyone thinks what a perfect match they'd make

He doesn't miss his mother's looks. She's hopeful, impatient. Her green eyes are sparkling with anticipation and he really wants to feel her excitement. Except he can't.

Piano. School. War. Be a man. Be someone. That's all he wants to know. His life doesn't need a marriage. There's not even enough room for love.

The rain is pouring outside, and the storm rages. Yellow lightning strikes and enlightens the room of its particular shade.

She enters.

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Her skin is soft. And it's the first time in his life that he really wants to kiss a lady's hand as much as he wants to back away from it.

You can say whatever you want to say, something happened the moment he touched her hand. If he's man enough, he would admit that something happened the moment she stepped inside, completely underdressed for such a weather, and yet, still utterly mesmerizing.

Her full red lips. Her shiny brown hair. Her tiny frame. Her pale skin.

But it's her eyes that really get him. Sparkling. Fierce. Deep.

And unreadable.

He hates the way she's unreadable. It feels like darkness, like the unknown. He cannot offer to love her, so he decides to hate her. Even if he doesn't really.

He was gone the moment his eyes met hers.

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His lips brush against her skin and she shivers.

She can barely admit it to herself, but it's certainly not from the cold. And when he straightens, she surprises herself by wishing she could taste his lips with hers.

She blushes. She's been known to be bold before but never when it came to boys. As if she needed love.

"You look astonishing."

His voice is sweet, suave, and sensual. It's lots of other things, but she lost herself a bit when he first spoke and she can't think straight anymore.

"You look very handsome as well, sir Cullen."

'Handsome?' Perfect, she wants to say. The perfectly perfect kind and suddenly, all her other suitors seem so pale in comparison.

And somehow the perfection of his face is made even more desirable by the cold look of his eyes. It's obvious he doesn't like her. Doesn't want anything to do with her. For a second, she wonders what she did to deserve such coldness of heart, but she's too proud to question it.

She looks around, anything to keep her from looking at the vibrant green of his eyes. He's the definition of perfection and he hates her. She could cry if her mother wasn't at her side, offering her a welcome distraction.

She could lie to herself. Honestly, she just could. But there's no point tonight.

She hasn't talked to him yet that she knows she's already gone.

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The first time he calls at her house, she is not prepared.

She was not waiting for him. But he came. And she is delighted about it.

She slept that first night they met, thinking he hated her with a passion, but when he bends to kiss her hand again, everything melts away. Worries, fears, pressure.

He just looks at her, a perfect half crooked smile on his face.

"My Lady, you look beautiful today."

And she wishes she could answer with something witty. But it's hard to think when he watches her with such a look on his face.

He smiles more and she feels like a fool. She blushes, looks away.

If that's not the beginning of something…

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Oh Romeo.

Suddenly, she wonders why she ever loved the way the hero and the heroine died in the end. What was wrong with her, she wonders. True Love deserves a happy ending.

It's been two months and his visits are frequent. Sweet. Anticipated. And full of contradictions.

The way he speaks, each of his words so carefully measured, the way he looks, each of his glances under control, the way he moves, all of his gestures planned in advance... He seems like a man who wants something but can't have it.

She just cannot understand who he is and what he thinks. He's surrounded by mystery and she could learn where he was born, what kind of baby he was, what his goals are that she would never feel like truly knowing him.

He feels like someone that shouldn't be here but comes anyway. She's too desperate to care.

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Desperate, that's what she came to be.

He seems off lately. He's pushing her away. It's driving her mad. She wants to scream at him. Make him care. But she's too afraid that she'll never see him again.

It feels like he's holding back. That's what it feels at least. No, it's worse than that. She feels like she's been shown the most precious gift in the world and this gift realizes that she's just not worth it. This gift decides that he'll be offered to someone better than her.

He doesn't court her.

Is she worth it in the end?

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The way he thinks about her is criminal, but she's in all his thoughts, all his wishes. She bewitched him. Mesmerized him. Intoxicated him. Like a poison takes control of someone's body, she takes control of his thoughts.

"I love you," he wants to say. But he doesn't.

He is not courting her. He can't court her.

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She misses his green eyes the most.

Love.

How could she be so stupid? He hated her from the very beginning. He had the same look when he parted from her than that first day when she met him.

"I am sorry but it is inappropriate for us to be seen together any more. We cannot be friends. Please, understand that you have committed no fault but I have other obligations to attend right now that require my full attention."

And he was gone. Just like that.

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Her mother takes her to another party. She needs to be shown, to shine. And to marry.

She puts on the same dress than _that night_, much to her mother's dismay. It's stupid, but maybe if he's here and she wears the same thing, maybe they could pretend they're meeting for the first time. And they could start from scratch again.

She knows she's supposed to hate him, but she can't. Her heart, cold, lonely, tasted love and wants more.

Suddenly, it feels like in books. She's Juliet and tonight, she finds a husband.

But it won't be him. Romeo is gone. Paris enters.

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He knows she's out there to find a husband. He also knows she doesn't want one. Knows that she loves books more than life. Loves the sun, and the light. But she doesn't have a choice. Marry, that's what decent young women do.

Marry, that's what men with good careers do.

He left because he couldn't be a friend. Because he couldn't be more than a _friend_. But fate keeps throwing them together.

She wears the same dress than the first time he saw her.

He doesn't think he can stay away from her this time.

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He gave up on trying. Gave up on pretending he doesn't care. He cares so much it hurts in every part of his body. His heart feels so heavy he wishes it would stop beating for a second. Would stop hurting.

He's no good for her and here he is, courting her, covering her with his love, so much love he could suffocate her. And she accepts it. She welcomes it, craves for it.

Somehow, he always knew she'd go to the end of the world for him. She used to be so guarded, so careful.

Now, she let him in her heart and there's no turning back.

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He conquered her mother, her father, everyone in the family. No one can find him a fault. He's perfect in every way.

Conversing is so easy with him. Everything is so easy.

"You're the most beautiful thing in the world," he says.

And all she can do is smile. He makes everything worth, the light of the day, every dream, every step, the rain that falls down and the cold that chills her.

She could be dying in the outside, under the cold, she wouldn't care as long as he's here. It's a strange feeling, loving so irrevocably.

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The first time he kisses her, he is so careful around her as he's afraid she might break. But if someone could break, it's him. He knows it. How could God do this to him? Gave him a heart to take it back. Gave him a soul to rip it to shreds.

And when they say 'I love you' for the first time, it feels so natural. Almost as it was meant to be. And he wonders if maybe, she can save him. Save his heart and soul.

But no matter how he turns this in his head, he doesn't see how it can end well.

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The love she feels in the whole of her being is so intense it almost scares her. This is definitely no crush, or books. This is the real life, the real deal. This is what a young girl of eighteen, pressured into marrying, never thought she would find.

Love.

No, True Love. With capital letters because it's definitely nothing like anyone else she knows share.

They can't hide, can't stay away from each other. They show their love to the world, to the point where they get indecent. But their love is so much to handle, they feel like they need to share it, need to let it pour out of their bodies before it traps them. It's scary, and yet beautiful.

She needed love in her life. Now she knows.

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His parents are already thinking about the marriage. He hasn't even asked yet.

It's eating him away. Thinking. Doing the right thing. The best thing. The logical thing.

What about love? Isn't it the 'thing' that matters the most?

But he can't do that to her. She still has a chance for a normal life. And it hurts him so much to think about it, but there are all those men, those respectable men who could make her happy, who could give her so much more than what he could…

Can he really take that away from her?

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She is gorgeous, she is clever and they fit just perfectly. They don't need anything else. It's like an evidence.

Gorgeous, clever. Perfect. Who wouldn't want her? Who wouldn't want to make her his forever?

Except he has a heart condition, and he won't live forever.

He does not tell her that, of course. He doesn't know why, but it's his own shame to live with. He's not perfect the way she hopes him to be, and he's not as strong as society requires him to be.

He wants to love her the way she deserves, he wants to give her the life she deserves, but if he's honest with himself, he can't be the one to give it to her.

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Months pass by, but nothing dulls the reality. He left. He got on a boat for America and he left her.

Pain. Then numbness. Then emptiness.

So that's what loosing your true love feels like.

Her mother asks her to go on, to hold on, and to snap out of her misery. People are talking. She doesn't move out of her bed. Is she sick? What happened with the young Cullen? Is she pregnant?

People are talking and talking is bad for the family reputation.

'Go on', her mother asks.

But going on for what? She is as good as dead.

Her life was over. Love was over. He had left her.

She was dead inside.

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Leaving her had been much harder than what he anticipated. He knew he would never recover, never forget but as on cue with his feelings, his heart was failing him. He had left her and now he was paying.

He could die. For all he knew, a life without her wasn't worth it.

All he hoped was that she got her chance to happiness. Hope she was going to mend and meet someone who would live at her side for years and years to come and give her all the happiness of the world, even if it killed him to know that he wouldn't be that person.

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And then, it's over. His heart stops.

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They don't remember but they met when they were five and six.

"Leave me alone" was the first thing he ever said to her.

He looked so sad; she just wanted to talk to him.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes and she means to leave, but she doesn't. She sits next to him. He glances her way.

"Sorry too," he says in the end. "I shouldn't have talk to you like that."

She smiles. "It's ok. Why are you so sad?" Children have so little patience.

"My heart is not good," he says earnestly. "The doctor thinks I'm not going to live long."

She frowns and already, he hates to see her frown.

"I'm sure you'll be fine."

He looks up. And wonders who that little girl with that beautiful smile and those gorgeous brown eyes is.

"Angels never die," she admits, kissing him on the cheek, before running off to her mother.

They met, but they don't remember.

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He is dead.

The words don't make sense.

They couldn't make sense.

He couldn't be dead.

He had just left her and gone to America. That's all.

He couldn't.

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She found that she didn't have any tears left to cry when she heard about his heart condition.

Why didn't he tell her? She would have stayed at his side for as long as he was there. She would have helped him, loved him… Did he ever love her? Did he ever care? She'll never know and in lots of ways, she doesn't care anymore. She's empty. He dried her.

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How could she know he cared so much that he gave up life for her? She knows that it's Romeo's impossibly intense love of Juliet that led him to death. It was for her. Only for her.

But how can she think of herself as a Juliet? She's just a Bella. Was a Bella. And now she's nothing anymore.

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Maybe Romeo killed Juliet after all.


End file.
